Afternoon Drive withJoanne Joseph

702 and CapeTalk host, Eusebius McKaiser was joined in studio by economists Xhanti Payi, Economist at Nascence Advisory and Research, Busisiwe Radebe, Economist at Economic Unit Nedbank Group Ltd and Annabel Bishop who is a Chief economist at Investec in a roundtable discussion about how to grow South Africa's sluggish economy.

Payi tells McKaiser that following the finance minister Malusi Gigaba's Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, what is more important to discuss is how South Africa can get itself out of the economic mess it is in.

Radebe, on the other hand, says if Gigaba wanted to garner any credibility, he should have had a detailed plan on how to recover the country's economy. She adds that it was imperative that he did that during his midterm budget delivery.

I was disappointed by the mini budget. I was also hoping there was some form of a fiscal consolidation. I found that very disappointing.

— Annabel Bishop, Chief economist at Investec

We can't continue with the economy seeing essentially, almost stagnant growth and with the politics, business and economic uncertainty continuing to remain and escalate without any clear path of stronger economic growth going forward.

— Annabel Bishop, Chief economist at Investec

Bishop says the reason we don't have sufficient tax revenue is that there is not sufficient economic growth. She adds that growing the economy would help with the good fiscal consolidation, like in 2008 where South Africa had good credit ratings.

Radebe believes secure investment may aid and improve the current low levels of investment.